This semester has been pretty busy and a tough one for me...I started the semester a little rocky by losing my grandpa. I will miss his smile and the way he made me feel when I walked in the room. I always felt like he was truly excited to me every time we visited. I miss that feeling of having someone truly excited to see me and Melissa. It was the 4th funeral I'd been to in a month. The month of August, there were a lot of people that I love that have moved on.

We were supposed to drive to California for Jolynn's baptism and that was abruptly stopped when we crashed in Caldwell...the bluish greenish van didn't survive, but we all did. Mom's thumb got the worst of it. She is still in the process of getting that back to normal. My knee decided that the console between Mom and Dad shouldn't be attached anymore hence the wonderful colors in my knee. Those deep bruises take a long time to go away. I know the reason for seatbelt checks now since mine failed to work.

Melissa started Kindergarten this fall, and she absolutely loves it and her teacher. I really like her teacher also. She has learned so much and I am constantly amazed at everything she is learning. I volunteer weekly in her classroom and I love helping the kids practice all of their letters and numbers.

I am still teaching drawing classes for Young Rembrandts and I love it. I like that I go to so many different schools and get to meet so many kids. Between Melissa's class, Cub Scouts, and Young Rembrandts, I get lots of time to spend with lots of kids. I think it's to give me perspective on how Melissa acts. I understand better how normal she really is and sometimes how good she really is compared to some kids. (-:

We got to go Utah in October for my mission reunion which was a lot of fun. It's always fun to see people that you spent so much time with again. It has been a good 5 years since I'd seen any of them and I really enjoyed myself. I really enjoyed the time I spent with family too. I hadn't seen any of my cousins or my aunt Rita for a very LONG time. I really enjoyed just hanging out and getting to know them better.

Seamus is wearing the infamous neck brace, it's gotten a workout the last few months, between my pinched nerve in my neck and dad's, it gets well used. Halloween was fun, Melissa decided to be a monarch butterfly instead of yearlong plans of being Belle. She learned all about butterflies in her Kindergarten class and loves them, although her favorite animal as she has informed me is turtles.

This year has been 4 years since Joe died in October. I have learned that I still need to have a day off that day. I had plans on staying home to scrapbook, but my wise mother knew better and kept me busy with shopping. We went to the cemetery and I ended up going the same time Joe's family went. I hadn't seen any of them in a long time.

Melissa got her first filling in her tooth and was absolutely perfect for the dentist. She didn't even whimper. The dentist told her she was the best patient he's ever had. That made her so happy. I was actually in shock the whole time because I usually have to hold her down when she needs shots. She didn't even flinch when he deadened her mouth.

Thanksgiving we went to California and spent time with the California family. I love spending time with Jana and Justin and their families. I know Melissa absolutely LOVES playing with her cousins down there. I can't believe everytime I see them, how big they are getting.

This year's ward Christmas party was a huge hit. Steve made a fabulous Santa Claus. It took so much stress off of me to have him do it. Last year was such a mess trying to find Santa. He loved doing it and he was so good with the kids.

Joe's birthday was on December 8. He would have been 32 years old. We went up and had to dig in the snow to find the headstone, but it's always worth it. Melissa picked out a stop sign that said Santa STOP here for him. All she can read is STOP. So she said she needed to put it on there because he STOPPED breathing. How her brain works, always surprises me. She even made him a snow angel next to the headstone. It always surprises me what she thinks about all of this.

I promise to do better this next year with this blog. It's a lot to catch up when you wait 6 months. MY BAD! I will do better.